As all the switches on the gearbox only control the dash lights it does not matter if they all fail. As for the front diff, if the vacuum assemblies fail it goes into the lock position. About as failsafe as you can get.

Darryl

I understand where your point Darryl, however the vehicle I was working on did not go into the hub lock position completely, a small amount of vacuum on the ‘unlock side’ of the actuator was keeping it from doing this. An audible clunk was heard when pulling up as the hubs where trying to lock in but once we moved off again the hubs were definately in the unlocked position. So even in 4×4 the hubs were not locking in and staying in.
Craig

Thanks lads just bought this model with the same problem I tought it was going to be searous but can sort this myself might ask for your help chears Alan Irish just leaving Sydney for perth next week

No worries Alan, best of luck!!

I recently bought a 91 glx with what souds like the same problem,when I drive in two wheel drive it sounds like the hubs are trying to engage and I get teeth grinding sound ouf the drivers side and when I stop I get a very distinctive clunk as the hub engages .I’ve got an NA sitting on the front lawn with a broken g/box,I was thinking if I could take the manual hubs of that and put them on this car?

Hi,
Unfortunately the manual hubs from the NA won’t solve your problems as the 4×4 selector on the front diff still needs to work properly to engage four wheel drive. The clunk when you stop sounds exactly like the problem we were having that was caused by the vacuum solenoids providing vacuum to both sides of the actuator. This part of the problem was fixed by replacing the solenoids and I’ll bet if you do the same with your vehicle that all will be good. There is a place that sells solenoid sets for around $150.00, their website is http://www.Delicashop.com. Hope this helps you out.

Hi Craig
Thanks for the advice but the problem is not the vehicle not wanting to go into 4WD ,but the front hubs trying to engage when I only want 2WD..when I drive in 4WD I have no problems…this is what makes me think the hubs are the problem..and the problem is intermittent,I drove the car all day today in 2WD with no probs..I prefer my old 84 NA, much simpler, but it would have cost me over a grand to put another box in and the car needs other work as well ,but at least when something goes wrong I can fix myself..this 91 NH has vacuum hoses and computers, I think you can agree ,this makes diagnosing problems particularly intermittent ones ,a nightmare..

Hi,
You’re absolutely right about diagnosing these systems, a bit fiddly when the problem is constant and a nightmare when intermittent! And I agree, what’s wrong with getting out and switching the hubs if you think you may need 4×4? At least you know you’ll have 4×4 when you needed! There is a good diagnosis procedure at http://4wd.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=318776, that may be helpful to you.

MY 97 PAJERO – HAS WHAT YOU AE ALSO DESCRIBING – INTERMITTENT PROBLEM – INITIATED BY FLASHING GREEN LIGHTS ON DASH – FOLLOWED BY AN EAR PEARCING ENGINE NOISE WHICH ONLY CEASES IF I PULL OVER AND IT MAKES A “CLUNK” AND ALL IS NORMAL AGAIN. ONLY HAPPENS IN 2/3RD GEAR. I HAD A FULL COMPUTER DIAGNOSTIC INSPECTION AND HAVE BEEN TOLD IT IS A WORN DIFF LOCK BUT WITHOUT A FURTHER ” COMPREHENSIVE DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENT” THEY CANT DETERMINE WHETHER IT IS MECHNICAL OR ELECTRONIC – MECHANICAL BEING POSSIBLY 5K WORTH OF REPAIRS COMPARED TO ELECTRONIC OF $700. CAN ANYONE SHED ANY LIGHT ON THIS FOR ME – AFTER READING THE BLOGS – IT APPEARS THE SOLENOIDS ARE THE PROBLEMS WITH SIMILAR DIFF PROBLEMS??

Hi there,

I have a Dec 1989 Pajero LWB V6 auto, what was the top of the range model back then.

After beaching it at the bottom of a big muddy slimy pool of water near the coast the other day, it emerged with an instant problem similar to what you speak of here. The front hubs were both submerged but only up to front end of side steps. JUst below dorr sills.

On being pulled out backwards, by another 4wd, all was well, until we hit the bitumen agagin. I stopped, disengaged 4wd L and reversed a few metres to disengage Front Hub Lock and all went well – until I moved fwd agagin in 2wd and the front hubs locked up again (green light on dash).

Tried several more times to disengage Front hubs with no joy. Thought, maybe a sensor is wet and proceeded along in 2wd with light on, but every km or less, there was a screaming, flapping kind of noise from front RH Hub, presumably attempting to engage ??

Can find none of teh vacuum gizmos and engaging rod etc described and pictured here. Our old truck is a Dinosaur – Flintstone model Series 1 box-shape Pajero – 1989 V6 Auto. Has been faultless off road up til now – enjoyable to drive and ride in – suspension seats fantastic for our decrepit backs (wife and I).

Can anyone help ?

Charlie

hihad the same problem with my 92 pajero traced the fault what usually causes this it is the two vaccum valves on the rh inner gaurd replaced both problem solved

Hi, its interesting to finally find some info on the subject of the super select system when it goes wrong… Ours is just starting to play up, a ‘00 model NM, and shows itself by flashing the front hub lights when in 2WD. On 1 occasion it actually engaged and started to wind up the transmission which was quite concerning when you could smell the tyres working against each other. The only way for us to correct it is to switch the engine off, and restart it. Does anyone know how good the Haynes manual is to assist with locating and diagnosing these faults…?

Cheers

Ok my problem is a little bit different. Just come back from camping weekend with the offroad trailer tent. Had to engage 4WD and then ultimatly the central diff locks to get out on the roads. Central diff took some time to go in as was flashing for a while. When the time came to go back to 2wd the 4wd and diff lights just flashed and wouldn’t go out. Resolved the problem by swithing off the ignition and sitting there for 5 mins then starting again with the selector level in 2wd. Hopefully sounds like a leak on the vacume system. Anybody else had the problem of getting it out of 4wd?

thanks James

Hi All, I recently bought an 89 v6 Pajero Automatic, but I can’t get the 4wd to engage:/. The vehicle is in excellent condition for its age.Maybe i am doing something wrong, can anyone help me with this pls?

hi! to every one might somebody can help me,i have pajero 2002 gls 3ltr auto.trans, my problem is when i used the 4LC max of 30 min in dune bashing the fuse in reverse is blowing up and my gear will stock on last gear wher i put and or the gear is totaly not working we check all the switches and is ok also the solinoid,vacume,and the actuator.can somebody advise me what else to do.thanks

hello to every one somebody can help me.pajero 2002 gls V6 3ltr auto trans. my problem is when i continuesly driving, in 30 min. my C/D lock orange light is flashing continuesly ,my 2 wheel indecator green light are shuting off. and try to shift in to 4wd supper select its not working also. when i switch off the engine ang turn it on as in the manaul booklet its ok again but after 30 min. or less same problem occures.
thanks a lot

wilfred

On August 18th, 2008, wilfredo plona.jr said:
hello to every one somebody can help me.pajero 2002 gls V6 3ltr auto trans. my problem is when i continuesly driving, in 30 min. my C/D lock orange light is flashing continuesly ,my 2 wheel indecator green light are shuting off. and try to shift in to 4wd supper select its not working also. when i switch off the engine ang turn it on as in the manaul booklet its ok again but after 30 min. or less same problem occures.
thanks a lot

wilfred

This is a bit pedantic and doesn’t really change anything related to the fix but those Paj hubs, at least those on gen 2 models, are always locked. What the actuator does is lock the front drive shaft on the left hand side. In 2WD this shaft is allowed to rotate independently. The lack of locking hubs contribute to the Pajero’s almost indestructible front drive. It’ll play up at times but won’t break like either manual or auto locking have a tendency to do.

Hi,

we have a pajero 91 auto and the green lights flash on the dash
does this do any harm to the jeep?..

Hi John,
Having the ‘flashing green lights’ on the dash won’t actually harm anything, it just means that one part of the ‘Super Select’ system is not working correctly.

Depending on which part is faulty you might find that the vehicle won’t select 4×4 completely or come out of 4×4 completely. But to answer your question, no I have not heard of any cases of this issue causing any harm to the vehicle.

I am having a similar problem with my 93 model Pajero… when i select 4H or 4LC the lights starts flashing and it will not go into 4WD drive mode. Mitsubishi said it was an actuator which they replaced but did not fix the problem, now they want to replace 5 transfer switched which MAY fix the problem (For another $700.00 plus)… Is there somehow or somewhere i can go who can check what the problem is without being ripped by a Mitsubishi dealership?? Can i get non genuine switches from somewhere? Mitsubishi want $500.00 for a transfer switches… any advice would be much appreciated

Hi Greg,
It seems that 99.9% of these problems are being caused by the two vacuum solenoids located on the inner drivers side wheel arch and these can be bought from Mitsubishi for around $120.00 from memory.
Do you know if it was these that have been previously replaced or the actuator assembly on the front diff? If it was the actuator assembly on the front diff that was replaced in my opinion I would be looking at the vacuum solenoids before replacing the switches as it is very rare that these fail.
If we can determine what parts have already been replaced I should be able to help you sort it from there.

hi a friend on mine has brought a 91 pajero automatic and the previous owner says it wont go into 3rd gear until a sensor or something warms up he says its in that model only have you heard of this or is it bullshit

Hi Nathan,
Can’t say I have ever heard of that one. Over the years I’ve driven plenty of automatic Pajero’s and Triton’s, both from a cold start and at operating temp and haven’t noticed any problems changing into third or any gear for that matter.
I suggest a call to a auto trans specialist with experience in 4×4 transmissions just to be 100% sure but it does sound like crap to me.

Hey James! I appear to be the only one who faces the problem of Central Differential and 4WD not disengaging. I mean, it takes time on my pajero too (1999). what i do is, drive a few feet forward, a few feet reverse, and the lights stop flashing.

i DO have a front locking hubs problem too. the lights on the dash are flashing, lights for 2WD dont come on at all ( i assume the bulbs are dead), and it makes a grinding noise when u start driving (not a loud one). and 4WD, Central Differential and Rear Diff take a lot of time to engage. R/D keeps disengaging too, at times.

I wonder.

Hello, I have an 02 NM Pajero which has the orange centre diff light coming on after about 30km’s of continuous driving. The green lights will go out and just the orange flash. The 4WD system still works though. If I stop the vehicle, turn it off and restart the orange flashing light goes away and everything is normal until the next continuous drive of 30km’s or so. I have asked a Mitsubishi dealer and they tell me it could be one of 5 solenoids that they have to swap out one at a time at a cost of about $200 each!!! Could be up for a $ton by the time they figure it out. Is this right? Does anyone know about this problem and can give me a better idea of how to fix? I find the Mitsubishi dealer (supposedly experts) very vague with this fault. thanks

Hi Jeff,
I believe that the problems you are having are related to one or more of the switches/solenoids on the transfer case and yes, as crazy as it sounds I have heard from a number of people that Mitsubishi’s answer is to replace them one by one until the problem disappears, along with the contents of your savings a/c!

Although my experience with the diff lock light problem is limited I have heard that common problems with these switches are either broken or damaged wiring and/or the switches not earthing correctly because of gunk or oil build up in the switch body itself. A visual check of the wiring is usually enough to eliminate this problem and I found that removing the switched one by one and thoroughly cleaning them with electrical contact cleaner was enough to restore function again. There is a ball bearing that is used for the ‘contact’ of the switch and by depressing this in while spraying the cleaner you can clean the internals quite well.

Having said that, a couple of the switches/solenoids and easy to remove and refit and a couple of them are absolute buggers to get to. You also have to be careful not to damage the wiring as you are screwing them out. Not the world’s easiest job to do however I do suggest carrying this out (or have a mechanic do it for you) before shelling out $1,000+ with Mitsubishi. I can’t guarantee this will solve the problem every time but certainly on the 3 or 4 vehicles that I have done it has been successful.

There is a good article here – http://4wd.blogeasy.com/article.view.run?articleID=318776 which explain things in a bit more detail than our write-up. The first part is on the ’super select’ lights flashing but if you scroll down towards the bottom of the article there is a bit of information that you might find useful for your problem.

Hope this helps somewhat and if possible I suggest doing these things before heading back to Mitsubishi.

Please let us know how you get on with it.

I have a MK1 1990 pajero exceed, just recetly the wheel lock light is on when in 2wd, could some one help, how does the auto free wheel hubs work, its RHD, my passenger side is disconnected but get noise from it when driving, at times the light goes out and this is when the noise start (like as if its bearings) the drivers side is engaged.. do both sides disengage when in 2wd? what could be the cause of the passenger side causeing the noise?
I have read some threads, BUT i do not have vaccume pipes, actuator anywere around the diff or transfere box.. i am at a loss to this problem..

I’ve recently purchased a 92 nh Paj,and the front 4wd lights are flashing in 2h its in at the mechanics at the moment to see his verdict,i am agreable on the fact that i think its front vacuum valves need replacing,but i”ll wait and see the verdict,any bets?.

I’ve got my fingers crossed for you that it is the vacuum solenoids, cheapest and easiest fix!
Cheers,
Craig

I made a good DIY here for the transfer case switches and dash lights

http://www.pajeroclub.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=119